Samsung launches fastest flash chip

New 512GB chip is the first with eUFS 3.0

Samsung has announced that it has started mass producing the world's first 512GB smartphone chip with embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) 3.0 specifications.

The new chip could find its way into the Galaxy Fold and other upcoming smartphones from the Korean hardware giant, giving them read and write speeds comparable to ultra-fast laptops.

Back in 2017, Samsung first debuted a 512GB eUFS but that chip had sequential read speeds of 860MB per second and write speeds of 255MB per second. The company's latest offering more than doubles its sequential read speed to 2,100MB per second with write speeds also seeing an increase to 410MB per second.

To put things in perspective, the UFS 2.1 chips Samsung launched in January are only half as fast as the new 3.0 model.

eUFS 3.0 chips

According to Samsung, its new chips' read speeds are 20 times faster than a typical microSD card and even manage to be four times faster than a SATA SSD.

The company's executive vice president of memory sales and marketing, Cheol Choi explained how its new chips give it a leg up on the next-generation of mobile phones in a statement, saying:

“Beginning mass production of our eUFS 3.0 lineup gives us a great advantage in the next-generation mobile market to which we are bringing a memory read speed that was before only available on ultra-slim laptops. As we expand our eUFS 3.0 offerings, including a 1-Terabyte (TB) version later this year, we expect to play a major role in accelerating momentum within the premium mobile market.”

Samsung's new 512GB eUFS chip will launch this month alongside a 128GB version though the company plans to start manufacturing a 1TB and 256GB model during the second half of the year.